Syandus Blog

Have you ever wondered why top performers consistently make better decisions even in new situations? The secret lies in their mental models - the sophisticated frameworks they use to understand situations and choose optimal approaches. These aren't just simple decision trees or memorized processes. They're rich, dynamic ways of seeing the world that transform how they recognize patterns and make decisions.

Your top performers likely excel in two critical ways: They adapt their approach based on each situation rather than using a one-size-fits-all strategy, and they confidently apply new approaches even when situations don't perfectly match their training.

Here we'll explore how cognitive flexibility principles and structured practice, delivered through immersive simulation technology, help teams develop this crucial capability by exposing them to the ways top performers adapt to different situations.

Your top performers might hold the key to transforming organizational performance: They consistently make better decisions, and sharing that success can elevate performance across teams. Why? Because their expertise isn't just knowledge - it's the ability to recognize patterns and make better decisions in fluid, real-world situations. Here we'll explore how cognitive apprenticeship principles and structured practice, delivered through immersive technology, can help you close the gap between top performers and the rest of your team.

Want to transform performance? Put people in authentic situations. But not just any situations - they must capture real organizational challenges and provide structured paths to better performance. Put a sales manager in a real coaching scenario, a physician in an actual patient case, or a leader in a true team challenge - and watch performance improve dramatically. Why?

Because authentic situations are essential for developing impactful decision-making skills.

Every organization has them: top performers who consistently make the right decisions in challenging situations. They make it look easy - but it's not just about what they know. It's about how they developed the skills to apply that knowledge effectively.

Here we'll explore how cognitive science reveals the way top performers develop these capabilities, and show you how structured practice, powered by immersive technology, can help you capture and scale these behaviors to elevate performance across your teams.

Are your e-learning tools - Articulate, Captivate, iSpring, Elucidat, etc. - giving you the results you want? Are your training programs transferring desired behavior changes to the workplace?  If not, it’s likely not the fault of the tool. Your instructional designers may just be expecting more from a tool than it was designed for… like asking a car to fly.

This article will explore why e-learning tools alone do not deliver effective knowledge transfer. Our goal is to show how immersive virtual practice and coaching in realistic environments can facilitate successful transfer to the workplace. We’ll also demonstrate how to solve a common L&D challenge using a 3D immersive learning platform.

How do we know what we know? It’s because we construct mental models that interrelate information in a sensible way, that we can test and refine with our experience. Learning requires that we assemble a new mental model, or integrate it into one we already have. These models can be completely wrong, flawed, suboptimal; or emulate the mental models of experts. Yikes! It seems we should care about mental models!

The mental models a learner constructs can directly impact the rate at which they achieve optimal performance, if at all. Let’s dive in...

Humans are still the best pattern-recognition machines on the planet! (At least for now.) Yes, we have suffered losses to man-made machine, in Jeopardy, chess, and recently the game Go. But we recognize complex patterns in everyday life and transform them into actionable steps, in ways that machines cannot.

What’s our secret? Cognitive Flexibility. This trait allows us to diagnose, design, and problem-solve in highly unstructured situations where “rules” do not yet exist.

So, if we humans are so good at this cognitive flexibility thing, how can we use it to develop more effective learning programs?

Think for a moment about someone you know that is an expert at something. They could be great at their job, defusing conflicts, or managing their health. Now think about how they do it, and how you would build a program to help others achieve better performance in that area. Pretty challenging, right? Why is it so hard?

Does realism really matter in training? The short answer is... yes.

Realism is essential when the goal is to create virtual learning environments to transfer knowledge from the classroom or an e-learning program to real-world behaviors.  Two cognitive science concepts provide the underpinnings for why experiential realism improves knowledge transfer.